Mid-November / Dungeon #7
Please kill me now... WTF with all the boss battles? I'm fighting Akechi's second form right now. It's not even challenging, just boring. This game is starting to lose me hard. And all the recent story developments were predictable from a mile away.

I don't know... I'm 105+ hours in so I'm going to finish this game no matter what but they should have cut about a third of it.

Persona 5 has a lot of loadings and transitions so it adds up alot in your 100+ playthrough so faster on PS4 is nice
Would've been nice to compare to PS4 Pro's boost mode loading times too which should be a tad faster than PS4's aswell

Holy crap are you me? Although I haven't beaten P5 yet I don't think it tops P3.

P4 definitely has the best well rounded cast, I mean it's kind of hard to hate anyone except Yosuke on some occasions whereas in P3 Ken kinda sucks and Koaramu felt a bit irrelevant.

Music in 3 is definitely top tier as it feels the most emotionally invested and the battle theme is great (bought the P3 DLC for P5), also who can deny the amazing Nyx boss battle theme? I like P5 soundtrack bit probably wouldn't listen to it outside the game.

That's okay though, I'm sure the ps2 games are classics in their own right?

Yeah, you'll be more than fine. Golden's story additions aren't really great and the gameplay is still great. For 3, people continue to debate on whether or not FES or Portable is the best version as they each have their own pros and cons, so there's no real definitive edition so to speak.

The only thing that will be hard to put up with is lack of party control in 3 and the fact that skill inheritance through fusion is entirely random in Persona pre-Golden. It fuckin sucks sitting in the menus trying to get the right combination of skills to pass down and thank GOD they changed this in all Megaten games now.

Originally Posted by Opa-Pa

Literally the only thing I can think of that P4 does better than P5 is localization, and even that isn't saying much, to be honest. P4 is one of my favorite games ever, by the way.

I seriously just don't see the complaints about padding in dungeons except for stuff like the PINs in palace 3. Even palace 5, my least favorite, felt coherent in how it worked, it's just that I wish it was more combat focused, but it's pretty puzzle heavy.

Palace 6 complaints are the most confusing to me though because I keep reading about repetitive mechanics and I don't see them, did we play the same dungeon? It was just a bunch of objectives that required you to explore and fight the most fun enemy parties in the game with the narrative excuse of, yes, doing the same thing about 4 times. It even had an arena challenge which was great, but because you're getting coins as a reward it's repetitive?

I seriously love dungeon crawling and fighting tough enemies so I savor dungeons as much as possible in this and rarely find them too long because I always take 2 or 3 days to beat them. Sure it'd be nice if they were more fun in NG+ but that's a minor issue in my mind. P4's were competent in the sense that I just saw them as an excuse to fight enemies, which was fun enough, but P5's dungeons add an extra layer of fun by being, well, real dungeons with real puzzles.

Well said, and I agree completely. I think the 7th kind of drags just because mechanically it's kind of dull, but even then, I'll take it to the randomly generated stuff. I love exploring dungeons for lengthy periods and seeing everything they have to offer (I enjoyed Eradinus in Strange Journey!). I can't get over how the dungeons here are even better than SMT4/4A too!

P3 OST never grabbed me. Altho I never beat the game so I never heard the late game music. I think only the title menu music in FES was quite nice. But, I will make another attempt to watch a full LP of the game so I can at least have knowledge of what happens in the game cuz P3 lovers tell me it's worth it.

Since this is my first Persona game I have been thinking about buying P4 and P3 for ps2 as well. I still have a nice PS2 slim I could play them on, but they are pretty expensive for ps2 games :( (then again so was Godhand)

Do it. Persona 4 is (imo) better than Persona 5 so I'm sure you'll enjoy it a lot.

If you think that one was hard, you are in for a rude awakening in the third dungeon.

Pretty sure that boss doesn't have a weakness: Eyes can only be hit by physical, mouth only by magic, and nose by either.

One beef I have with bosses in this game: The whole game you are told to find the weakness (which could be a thing they are weak to, or might just be using buffs/debuffs/reflection/whatever), but then bosses just kind of throw that rule out the window.

Example (4th palace boss): You can't hit her with physical because she is flying around,
then you do the ballista and shoot her down, and then you can just keep hitting her for a few turns. At first I was using magic, then decided on a whim to use a physical skill and it did about 4-5 times the damage. Yet she isn't weak to phys. It kind of just breaks it's own rules here where something is more effective on it, but it isn't actually it's weakness.
It just kind of breaks it's own rules where something is more effective even though they aren't actually weak to it. I don't mind the cinematic stuff in the bosses, but throwing the game's rules out the window in favor of them is pretty stupid.

Damn 😭😭😭 I guess I need to better prepare myself or something because that one sounds crazy. Maybe I need to go to the mementos more often and continue Skilling up that way? Plus I feel like I need more fusions too

I just need to listen again to P3 tracks before I say if it's better than P5's or not.

I can't think of any music from p3 that sticks out in my mind outside of tanaka's theme, the velvet room theme, and the fes opening them song. Obviously 2 of those don't really help p3's ost compared to the others :P . The p4 songs I can remember a dozen of them, p5 despite putting 60 hours into so far I can only think of a handful of songs (opening theme, persona awakening theme, steal the treasure) that stick out to me. Perhaps if I listened to both p3 and p5's ost separate from the games they would swap but this is simply from memory.

I can't think of any music from p3 that sticks out in my mind outside of tanaka's theme, the velvet room theme, and the fes opening them song. Obviously 2 of those don't really help p3's ost compared to the others :P . The p4 songs I can remember a dozen of them, p5 despite putting 60 hours into so far I can only think of a handful of songs (opening theme, persona awakening theme, steal the treasure) that stick out to me. Perhaps if I listened to both p3 and p5's ost separate from the games they would swap but this is simply from memory.

You don't remember the battle theme or town music? I think you are bad peoples

Dorm music, story boss theme, school first season are all highly memorable as well. I personally hate it but a lot of people seem to like burn my dread

If you think that one was hard, you are in for a rude awakening in the third dungeon.

Pretty sure that boss doesn't have a weakness: Eyes can only be hit by physical, mouth only by magic, and nose by either.

One beef I have with bosses in this game: The whole game you are told to find the weakness (which could be a thing they are weak to, or might just be using buffs/debuffs/reflection/whatever), but then bosses just kind of throw that rule out the window.

I think this is a problem that people artificially create for themselves. Yes there is the 1 more system of exploiting weakness but it's only one part of it, the battle system is so so so much more than just exploiting enemy weakness. It's not just the bosses but even the regular enemies start popping up around 4th dungeon with no weakness, if you are a player who almost exclusively relied on exploiting weakness then ofcourse you will have a difficult time.

There are so many combinations of stuff you can do in battles which people simply don't try because they are too busy trying to find elemental weakness and then get disappointed when they don't find one. There are technical combos, there are tricks like making magic heavy enemies enraged so that they only use physical, there is the fact that you can create personas that repel and nullify damages etc etc.

I've made some progress through the first palace: defeated a mini boss, and thus far palace exploration/progress is going much better than I expected.

However, back in the real world, I couldn't be more lost. I'm not really sure where to start confidant wise, job wise, which stats to increase early on, etc.. etc.

Any YouTube explanations I should watch, or any websites I should read through?

There is barely anything to do at that point. Do whatever you feel like doing tbh. You cannot do everything in one playthrough, so there is no point trying to achieve as much as possible when you can do all of it in NG+ much faster and easier. So just enjoy your first run doing whatever you feel like.

I've made some progress through the first palace: defeated a mini boss, and thus far palace exploration/progress is going much better than I expected.

However, back in the real world, I couldn't be more lost. I'm not really sure where to start confidant wise, job wise, which stats to increase early on, etc.. etc.

Any YouTube explanations I should watch, or any websites I should read through?

Some social links are locked behind social stats, get the doctor social link to rank 7 for discounted items and accessories, explore and do whatever you feel. Every persona game I feel like I'm being thrown to the wolves once it opens up and I love. I usually do a few play threw of Persona games so I'm different. I usually max out my social stats on my first play threw while doing whatever catches my attention than I focus on social links on my second play threw.

I think I like all three modern Persona soundtracks almost equally. I probably like 3's the least because at times it was a bit off-putting because of how experimental it is, but it's still great.

P5's is way more chill and discrete, but still fantastic IMO, it's exactly the direction I wanted after Catherine. And all in all I believe it fits the game better than 3's and 4's did their games.

Also, so far for me 5 > 4 > 3 > 1 >>>>>> 2 EP > 2 IS

I'm still not done with P5 but I'm near the end so I doubt it'll take a nosedive in quality out of nowhere.

Originally Posted by PhantomThief

Since this is my first Persona game I have been thinking about buying P4 and P3 for ps2 as well. I still have a nice PS2 slim I could play them on, but they are pretty expensive for ps2 games :( (then again so was Godhand)

Do you own a PS3? Both games are available as PS2 classics and are, for some fans, the ideal way to experience them.

4 was a Scooby Doo game in a village with modern JPop music...just saying !

I don't care if it had other good, fitting, piano themes or what not that makes people cry, it's never getting a slip from me because of that particular mismatch. Persona 5's music is such a good fit for it's style throughout (with the exception of palace 5 music, fuck that shit physically hurt my ears).

I really like the dialogue & the continuous nodding to Margaret from P4 (or maybe it's Elizabeth). I've found myself constantly wanting to say to the TV "It's from Margaret!!" every time they exclaim they don't know why they have the list of Personas or who left it lol.

4 was a Scooby Doo game in a village with modern JPop music...just saying !

I don't care if it had other good, fitting, piano themes or what not that makes people cry, it's never getting a slip from me because of that particular mismatch. Persona 5's music is such a good fit for it's style throughout (with the exception of palace 5 music, fuck that shit physically hurt my ears).

Haha I get you. It's hard for me to tell if 3 and 4's soundtracks really fit or it's just that I got used to the weird mismatch. I know 3 felt super odd at first but with the time I got to love it.

Hell, 3 is even worse because it tries to be dark and communicate a sense of dread and uncertainty but its soundtrack is even more upbeat than 4's at times lol. Only near the end it changes.

I am certain that 5's is a perfect match for its game in comparison tho, that's for sure.

I really like the dialogue & the continuous nodding to Margaret from P4 (or maybe it's Elizabeth). I've found myself constantly wanting to say to the TV "It's from Margaret!!" every time they exclaim they don't know why they have the list of Personas or who left it lol.

I think the biggest offender in P5 music wise is the Palaces, so far at least they're all extremely bland and forgettable. I'm not entirely sure about the Zero 7 style vocal version of the night music either, it's a nice tune but I'm not sure It's something I want to listen to repeatedly through a game

12/24 Big Spoilers: The last dungeon is too real, lol. Love the concept. Depressing but also motivating. Some of the metaphors and twists feel a bit forced compared to P4, still have questions about Igor's deal, but overall I'm pretty satisfied with how the game is wrapping up.

If you think that one was hard, you are in for a rude awakening in the third dungeon.

Pretty sure that boss doesn't have a weakness: Eyes can only be hit by physical, mouth only by magic, and nose by either.

One beef I have with bosses in this game: The whole game you are told to find the weakness (which could be a thing they are weak to, or might just be using buffs/debuffs/reflection/whatever), but then bosses just kind of throw that rule out the window.

Example (4th palace boss): You can't hit her with physical because she is flying around,
then you do the ballista and shoot her down, and then you can just keep hitting her for a few turns. At first I was using magic, then decided on a whim to use a physical skill and it did about 4-5 times the damage. Yet she isn't weak to phys. It kind of just breaks it's own rules here where something is more effective on it, but it isn't actually it's weakness.
It just kind of breaks it's own rules where something is more effective even though they aren't actually weak to it. I don't mind the cinematic stuff in the bosses, but throwing the game's rules out the window in favor of them is pretty stupid.

Lol that's not what "breaking your own rules" mean, lol at people throwing at term around. Take extra damage is not the same as being 'weak' to an Attack.

You're taught to find weakness but nothing says an enemy has to have a weakness to exploit. You forget the flip side to that lesson is you still have to avoid their strengths and resistance.

I think the biggest offender in P5 music wise is the Palaces, so far at least they're all extremely bland and forgettable. I'm not entirely sure about the Zero 7 style vocal version of the night music either, it's a nice tune but I'm not sure It's something I want to listen to repeatedly through a game

I certainly remember them and it keeps looping in my head, so I donno about it being forgettable. As a musician, I consider the dungeon 4 theme (days when my mother) to be fire and I love how technical it is...that definitely is the opposite of bland.